Throws yellow flag
Generalizations about public vs private schools (at any educational level) include too much variation within each group to allow for reliable generalizations about differences between the groups without undertaking a very, very carefully designed and sampled study. (And even then it’s a little iffy.)
Offsetting penalties, repeat the discussion.
Speaking from my personal experience as an educator and parent only. I felt the need to explain why someone would make the choice for private school education, and not because of LD, and not only because it might help in the college admission process. It’s a long path to parent a kid well, and there are many ways to do it. No judgement.
S23 was diagnosed with a physical (vision) disability when he was young. We started off with private schools, thinking it would be better, but ended up switching to public, because the support for disabilities in our local public school system turned out to be FAR superior to that available at the expensive private schools at our area. To use your phrase, it has been “a world of difference.” I am still amazed and grateful at what our child has been able to accomplish with the wonderful support he received in the public school system.
We are still waiting on merit & financial aid to see if Pitt is affordable enough to stay on the list, but my son just received this MVP invitation. Anyone else get this invite or have knowledge of/experience with this? Guessing maybe he’s on the list because he is a National Hispanic Merit Scholar. Sounds like a great event and good to know they are trying to increase diversity or show how all students have a place there.
Hello, Future Panther!
We are proud to invite you to MVP on the evening of February 24
The Multicultural Visit Program is a one-of-a-kind on-campus event designed to show how our campus community, combined with Pitt’s incredible academic and experiential opportunities, will help you find your fit at Pitt and beyond. This event is specialized for admitted students and families who have historically been underrepresented in higher education to connect with university leaders, staff, faculty, and students to see firsthand our commitment to creating a diverse, equitable, and just campus for everyone.
As a part of this unique invitation, we include accommodations for your travel. Please review the event details on the registration page and the reimbursement details prior to booking your travel.
On February 24, check in between 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. to join us for:
- A Welcome and Opening Celebration
- Catered Dinner and Dessert
- Fun Student Activities, and
- A Parent Panel with University Leaders and Current Students
Activities will conclude by 7:30 p.m.
I agree. There are good, bad & ugly in terms of both public and private high schools.
Our HS has every AP class you could possibly want. D19 started college with 43-44 credits. D23 will be around the same as long as she passes her senior year AP tests. D19 double majored while in college. D23 will probably do something similar.
Our HS isn’t some crazy highly ranked school, but we are big enough to have a ton of options. We have an enrollment of 3800-3900. Each grade 900+. I find my kids really only went to school(had classes) with the same 75-125 kids. My kids took honors and AP classes. You see the same kids in classes all 4 years.
The private schools in the area don’t have all those options. Now every public HS isn’t like that for sure, but many are.
I wasn’t totally sure what Bama would give my DD. She has 2 B’s. One in AP calc. I thought she had a 3.9 something (she also has a massive amount of classes because she transferred to BS as a repeat Jr, and did a summer class). They gave her the top merit for 36 ACT 4.0 full tuition plus year of housing etc. So they must not just be looking at straight unweighted, or they round a 3.9 something up.
No, the top is 4.0 1600SAT or 36 ACT Presidential Elite
Sigh. The once 3.3 gpa is so so close now to a 3.5 which would change merit at a few places. But likely too little too late. The kid literally turns to me and says “this information would have been very useful awhile ago.” I could have smacked him. Child, I have told you that grades matter and in fact that a 3.5 is a merit marker for several schools for over a year. Guess it wasn’t real, until it was. Please let him be interested in an affordable school option!
I have felt this sensation many times with S23!
His was less about grades and more about spending his time outside of school hours wisely, or applying to more schools, or being nicer to teachers to play the game, etc. (And I say that as a teacher.)
We can continue to hope that as boys, they are going to continue to mature. Every once in a while, he turns to me about some issue like this and and says, “You were totally right about that.” I cherish those moments!
You are correct. It’s not on the merit table though. It’s a shortage line. URMs also can earn similar and NMFs too.
Sorry for this omission.
Make him be interested in an affordable one. They are out there. Even for music.
My youngest child has autism and you couldn’t pay me to put him in public school. We tried public for special education kindergarten and it was a disaster. My son spent his first few years in private school special education then was able to mainstream and is now a high school student in all honors classes. The smaller class sizes and smaller school have allowed him to make friends, fit in, etc… With public school we found that there was no academic standard for special education. Had we kept our son in public he would have gotten so far behind academically during those formative years, he would likely have never caught up. The class sizes for special education were also horrid. My son was in a kindergarten class with 17 autistic children, one teacher, and two completely untrained aides. It was honestly like one of Dante’s circles of hell. Other states might not do as poor a job of special education as California. One would think with the taxes we pay we’d have good programs for such things, but nope. I was lucky enough to get a teaching job at the school my children go to after a few years, so we are comped tuition.
I wouldn’t extrapolate one public school or one public school district and say CA doing is poor job of special education.
If I did the same thing, then I’d say CA is doing an excellent job with special education, because for years and years students with special needs in our locale have left their private schools, even moved into the district from other areas of CA or other states, for the services provided to kids with special needs in our local public school district.
Lots of reasons for private schools other than LD or elite college admissions. Religion, safety, class size, particular sports, are all a few I can think of. My parents sent me to boarding school because my dad had to work overseas. We send our kids for religious and class size reasons.
That’s great to hear. That wasn’t my experience where we live, but I can accept that it may be more district to district specific. We found special Ed departments and services to be over burdened and children underserved. We happened to have a child with a high IQ and autism that was a significant impediment to his learning when he was younger. We had to figure out a way to both deal with the autism and educate him in grammar school and we found that balance in private school.
My son (AfAm) also received this. It’s strange because he declined his admission to Pitt when he was accepted ED at another university. I guess the offices don’t talk to each other. 
I think it’s a great opportunity and definitely worth checking out.
D23 wants a field that they don’t offer at Alabama and so I haven’t looked at their requirements for a good bit, but when D17 and D19 were applying Alabama’s rule was that they took the highest GPA listed on the applicant’s HS transcript, if multiple (usually, both a weighted and unweighted) GPAs were given.
Which is a bummer for kids coming from school districts like the one my kids are in that are stingy with the weighting, but so it goes.
I guess luckily she spent 3 years at schools with weighting, so her last two unweighted years with one B don’t matter. Anyway it is a moot point because sadly, she won’t even consider it. I encouraged the application, it was free and simple, her dad went there. But no, she hates heat, doesn’t want to go to school in the South, and wants a school with about 2-5k students.
Haha, yep that lack it communication seems to be the norm 
Thanks-it sounds very nice!
UAH is a smaller version and less ‘south’-y -in fact the #1 city for grads according to a recent article I just read…about 10k. Similarly cheap.